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Ordinary Heroes: Scott Turow
So you want me to talk about books I've read. Okay.
First, in the lower part of the right hand column, I've added a recommended list which will keep growing as I think of things to add to it.
And now, about Scott Turow's Ordinary Heroes.
I like Turow's work. He's thoughtful and he knows his way around a sentence; he tells a great story. This latest novel is a bit of a departure for him. Most of his stuff is about the law, from one angle or another (he is, in fact, a lawyer). This is a historical novel that tries to do a lot of different things at once, a lot of which is still about the law.
The main character is Stewart Dubinsky, a disenchanted 55-year-old crime reporter, divorced, no longer employed. His father is recently deceased. The biggest single fact about his father's life is that he married a woman he helped liberate from the extermination camps when he was in the Army at the end of WWII. Stewart's mother is still alive. He's helping her sort through his father's effects when he finds a bundle of letters that set him off on a journey to discover the truth about his father's past. Because, to Stewart's surprise and disquiet, it seems as though his father -- who had been a JAG lawyer -- had not only jilted a fiancee left behind in order to marry Stewart's mother, but at the time he had been in the middle of a trial, namely, his own courtmartial. This goes against everything Stewart believes to be true about his father.
The story is told in a combination of approaches. Stewart's recollections, his narrative as he pursues various lines of inquiry; the document his father wrote, his own story of what happened during he war, and the crime he was accused of committing; the lawyer who defended him -- 96 years old, living in a nursing home and willing to tell Stewart what he knows.
The novel is, you can tell from just this much, philosophical in approach. The nature of good and evil, right and wrong, ethics, depravity. The way people cope -- or fail to cope -- with the burdens of the past. There is a great story here, and Turow's voice is as clear and compelling as ever. But I had some trouble with this novel, anyway.
I found myself putting it down for long periods -- days, even two weeks at one point -- and reluctant to pick it back up again. This is not a good sign. It means that the narrative voice has failed to really capture my attention, and I know why that is, in this case.
I never warmed to Stewart. I didn't much like him to start with, and as the story moved along and his own ethics began to give way in the face of his enormous curiosity about his father, I liked him even less. Also, there were also some plot twists which I found to be heavy handed and even cliched, which I won't go into here for fear of giving too much away.
So, did I like this novel? Not as much as I hoped I would. It's got a lot going for it, and if you absolutely love any story having to do with WWII in Europe and its aftermath, it may be just right for you. But I couldn't get comfortable with Stewart.
November 28, 2005 10:28 PM
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